Pirates, Cardinals go distance and then some in 19 innings

On a perfect Sunday afternoon for baseball, why play nine innings when you can play 19?

The Pirates and Cardinals slugged it out at Busch Stadium in a National League Central battle, and when we say slugged we don't mean runs. The score was knotted at 2 until the 17th inning, when the Pirates' Garrett Jones drove in James McDonald with a bases-loaded infield single.

Game over? Not so fast.

The Cardinals came back with a sacrifice fly from Tony Cruz that scored Ryan Jackson. Can anybody say 17th-inning stretch?

In the 19th, Pedro Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen decided they'd had enough – or maybe they heard the dinner bell.

Alvarez homered and McCutchen's two-run single with the bases loaded gave the Pirates the final cushion in a 6-3 win. The game lasted 6 hours, 7 minutes – or the running time of the Expendables 2 movie, if you care to sit through it three times.

It was the longest extra-inning game since July 26, 2011. The Pirates lost to the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in 19 innings that day to begin a slide of 12 losses in a 13-game stretch that knocked them out of first place in the division.

What a difference a year makes. Now the Pirates are tied with the Braves in a race for a wild-card slot.

If you're wondering how this holds up for longest games in baseball history, here are some examples according to baseball-reference.com:

25 innings: The longest game to completion, recorded twice. In 1974, the Cardinals beat the New York Mets 4-3; in 1984, the Chicago White Sox defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6.

26 innings: The longest game, but it ended in a tie. In 1920, the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Boston Braves and the game was called with the score 1-1.

The Pirates now must juggle a little for the start of Monday's series with the San Diego Padres, since scheduled starter Wandy Rodriguez pitched two innings for the win Sunday.

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